almost no progress!

Hmm well, summers gone, winters here and nothing much has changed. Ah well, I'd like to have lots of excuses but in reality, things like having an extension built, and general chores have taken up some time, the rest is down to spending time in the workshop but not actually progressing much!

However I'm now putting in place my cunning plan to make more use of the land rover.

Step one has been to acquire a genuine agricultural draw bar
Step two has been to get a rear PTO

Step three will be to fit both and either build a 3 point hitch to attach implements or find old trailed implements . To this end I'm looking for a topper/mower so that I can top the horses paddock next year.

I'm going to be making a start on rebuilding the PTO soon, having now tracked down the bearings (timken 1985/1932 for anyone else doing the same)


One thing that has progressed a little is that I've sourced some of the parts needed to rebuild the side rockers, so that'll be a winter job I think

expect soem updates on the pto etc soon!

Slow progress

Wel, as you can see by the long silence, I didn't get things done in time. Work and other things have intervened.

A brief update,

Repro master cylinder, worse than the original, so decided to refurbish the original (again) and have another go. Brakes now seem like they are coming back so a few more goes with the ezeibleed and hopefully that be that.

I've also tried to quieten the engine down but replacing the well worn tappets/ rockers.

So far I've doen the easy bit and replaced all the top rockers, shaft, brackets, springs and push rods. I've now got to do the side (exhaust rockers and inlet cam followers).

This is more trickey thanks to the rh cam follower being hard to get hold of (dunsold only have the LH ones, as do John Craddocks)

Hopefully work is easing off a bit now I'll actually get the land rover on the road!

On the positive side I went to the Series one club 60th bash at chepstow and had an excellent time. Amazing to see so many series ones in a field at one time

Short update on progress

A brief progress update. I've no bought a new (repro) master cylinder since my last attempts at changing the seals on the old one didn't fix the leak, so I can only conclude it needs a full refurb.

I've fitted the reproduction one, now just the tedium of bleeding the system. I've taken some time off this week so expect more soon.

as an aside, why are the reproduction ones painted blue I wonder.

At least the rain means I'm not missing driving around with the tilt off!

Heritage land rover day photos

Just a quick post to say that lots of pictures of series ones, taken at Gaydon at the 2008 60th anniversary Heritage Land Rover weekend (on the Saturday) can be found at my webshots page

Sorry about the quality, they were taken on a free digital camera with no zoom.

Webshots Album

Hand brake springs

My Hand brake ratchet spring has been weak for some time now, and I will replace it, however after having the hand brake slip off for a second time (no damage or real the landy was only on a the gentle slope outside the garage) I decided that a temporary solution was in order until I have the time to strip the hand brake mechanism and replace the spring.

So here is my temporary fix (some may say bodge but I think that's harsh :-> )

Take a hose clip (the sort that you screw tighter) I used one that was for a garden hose since that's about the same diameter as the hand brake.

Find a suitable spring with a hook at each end.

Hook one end securely round the rod end which which comes out of the back of the hand brake lever

Undo the hose clip and slip it over the hand brake.

Feed the other end of the spring under the clip, between the clip and the hand brake lever.

Slide the clip up the lever tensioning the spring. Tighten the clip when the tension is such that you can operate the push button and the spring operates the ratchet when the button is released.

It took me a lot longer to find a suitable spring that to fit and now my hand brake operates correctly, with no danger of it slipping off.

Must find a correct spring and repair it properly though

A New target

So my next target is the Series One Club rally at chepstow on 28th 29th June.

I should make this one surely.....?


I've not had much chance to do any work these last few weekends but I have ascertained that the front left hub oil seal has also gone. since all these were replaced when I rebuilt the axle some many years ago, I'm wondering if the spate of failures is due to them sitting built up for many years without turning a wheel. Anyway new seals and bearings (just in case) ordered, and I hope to get this sorted next weekend. This should mean that I can put the new brake shoes on all round, adjust the brakes and hopefully, finally get an MOT.

Heritage Weekend

So as you have guessed by now I didn't get an MOT in time for the heritage weekend. SO I sadly had to attend in my very un Land ROver like VW Golf TDI. Ah well there is always another year, and the 60th bash in June to look forward to.

I went on the Saturday to the heritage weekend, and it was a definite improvement on last year with more trade stands and some excellent talks, as well as all the Land Rovers to look at.

I must confess to being a bit gutted when I saw the display area for the series ones, right on the main concrete apron in front of the museum. Not too many either.

Some lovely vehicles and interesting ones too.

I registered for the Corgi limited edition set of 2 series 1 80" in a presentation pack HUE166 and the last 80" due in December.
Highlights for me were meeting Tim Slessor of the original 1st Overland Expedition, and seeing some of the pre pro Series ones (R3, L9)
Low point, seeing an excellent 80" rear tub for a 1950 80" (like my spares vehicle) and not being able to buy it as I couldn't get it home in the golf.

An all round great day - I'll be posting links to photos soon

Good news bad news, and err.. news...

So I spent much of the weekend in the workshop. Here's what happened

Having got the brakes back together I attempted to bleed them. guess what? THe right rear wheel cylinder leaked, so on top of the oil leak it was leaking brake fluid.

Luckily I had a spare so stripping off the brake shoes and replacing the wheel cylinder was fairly quick and then bleeding the brakes gave a nice solid pedal, Hurrah!

I also swapped the HT leads, but it didn't cure the misfire on number 2 cylinder. CLeaning the plug (already a replacement seemed to cure it, the symptoms seem to be like a short circuit with the plug.

I also managed to attach the tail gat hinges to the home made (by a previous owner) rear crossmember. One day I'll replace this with a genuine one but for now at least the tailgate is on hinges.

Went for a test drive today, brakes are pulling with the right rear locking up. Guess the new shoes got contaminated with brake fluid after all. Given that I need to get an MOT before the end of the week looks like I might be taking the trusty disco to the show instead.

we'll have to see

More progress

So last night, I spent a productive hour in the shed. I replaced the newly rebuilt rear prop shaft and replaced the rear brake shoes.

So now it'll be bleeding the brakes and then off to the local garage to jet wash everything (it's a mess where the rear axle and prop have sprayed oil) and try to diagnose the remaining oil leaks before going for an MOT.

D(iff)-Day

So yesterday was D-day when I swapped the rear diff. I've been putting this off for a while, and to be honest having do the job I'm not sure why!.

A productive day yesterday, I probably got more done than I have for ages. Partly because I have accepted that its unlikely that I'll get the gearbox rebuilt in time, so I should fix everything else and get an MOT sorted.

So the other source of problems has been the rear diff, which has been very worn and leaking alot. I'd previously tried replacing the pinion seal, but that didn't help much, due to the shaft itself being worn.

e-bay turned up a second hand series one diff, which seemed ok though on closer inspection yesteday the pinion has some fore and aft wear - lets hope it's ok!

Fitting a rear diff involves the following

Jack up and place on axle stands.
Remove rear wheels, you remembered to loosen the wheel nuts before jacking up, right ?
Remove 3 coutersunk screws holding each brake drum on
Back the shoes off and remove the drums

Now depending on what else you plan to do you can either

a) remove the bolts holding the hub and backplate to the axle, leaving the brakes complete and avoiding having to bleed them
or
b) remove the brakes, disconnect the brake line and then remove the bolts holding the back plate and hub to the axle.

method a works if you have enough brake line to allow the half shaft to come out about 2 inches or so, that is enough to get the splined end free of the diff.

method b allows you to remove the half shat and hub assembly completly, not needed for this job normally but I had to adopt this method

So what happened ?

Well removing the right hand drum revealed the brakes were covered in oil. My first though was that the seal had failed, which I had a lot of trouble with when I first got it on the road. Given that I didn't really want another job, and especially one which was a compete pain last time, I was somewhat relieved to see that the problem was that the collar which is pressed on to the half shaft to hold thing in the right place had come loose, sliding down the shaft enough to let oil past the seal.
I happened to have a spare collar which seemed a tighter fit and for belt a braces I cleaned everything up and smothered the inside of the collar with lock tight, which hopefully will all help to keep thing in place.

Back to the diff replacement .

Once you have either removed the half shafts completely or slid them out of the way, unbolt the 4 bots hoting the prop-shaft to the diff
Now remove the nuts holding the diff to the casing and with the aid of a jack work the diff off trying not to damage any studs.
Be warned the diff is heavy, so I tried to maneuver it off with an old land rover seat base underneath so that it didn't fall onto concrete.

Replacing it really is the reverse, as they say in the Haynes manuals, start with a new gasket and remove all traces of the old one.

I found that to lift the diff back into position, lying under the car, was hard, so I used a series of blocks, bricks, wood etc. to gradually get it close in height and then moved it across onto the studs without having to lift it in one go. You may have more brute strength than I and not need to do this.

Once in place, tighten up in the usual manner, working round in a star patten, don't tighten it right up on any one stud until they are all at least finger tight.

Replace the half shaft/hub assembly, this requires some wiggling, especially on the log (left hand side ) to get the splines into the slots on the diff, I found rotating the pinion with my foot helped to line things up!

Then all that remains is to replace the drums and reconnect/ bleed the brakes, however since the one side of mine was covered in oil. I've left the drums off at this stage,and I'm about to get new brake shoes.

I took the opportunity to replace the universal joints in the prop-shaft too. So all round a pretty productive day, lets hope there is an obvious difference when driving it.

Festival of Speed

Just found out that Land Rover,in it's anniversary year is to be the featured marque at this years goodwood festival of speed. I guess the 1948 series one will be the slowest car from that era there, but it's nice to see them celebrating amongst the exotica.

Makes me even more glad I've booked my tickets already

A deadline!

So I've set myself a deadline, and now I worry it is too soon.

I've agreed to join a convoy of Series One Club members to the Series One Club 60th anniversary of Land Rover bash at Chepstow racecourse. This is not until 28th/29th June, so I'm fairly confident I'll be ready for that. However.... I've also signed up to be in the series one display area at the heritage weekend at the Heritage motor centre in Gaydon , which is at the beginning of May. THis now seems a bit ambitious, so expect a dramatic increase in progress on the gearbox rebuild as I burn some of that New Old Stock midnight oil to make it in time.

If you have a series one, or are just interested, become a member of the, Series One Club

The Heritage Motor Center can be found in Gaydon

That yellow knob!

Ever wondered how the land rover series selectable 4 wheel drive works? I thought I had a good idea until I stripped one down and started to rebuild it.

The low/high ratio part is nice and easy, the lever slides a pair of gears on a splined shaft to mesh with gears on a the intermediate shaft in the transfer box.

But what about 2wd/4wd?

This is more tricky to describe - I'll try to post some pics or diagrams soon, a picture painting a thousand words and all that.

Low 4wd,

The hi/lo lever (the one with the red button:->)when moved back for low also pivots a small link the other end of which moved forward sliding a shaft on which is the dog clutch, engaging the front output shaft.

Hi 4wd

This is the clever part, the pivot point for the link which operates the dog clutch shaft is actually the pin operated by the yellow button. Pushing the yellow button withdraws the pin from the center of the link, making it no longer pivot, now when the red lever is forward, the spring on the dog clutch shaft forces it to engage the dog clutch.

This is why to get out of 4wd Hi, you have to move the red lever, this moves the link until the point where the spring on the yellow button rod pushes the pivot pin back in.

Confused. Hopefully some diagrams soon.

First in a long line (hopefully)

So here we are then, edging into the 21st century!

I've decided to record what I get up to in my workshop, since I spend a good deal of my "free" time there, and I often want to refer back to what I've done.

Mostly my time is spent working on my Land Rover. It's a 1953 80" wheelbase series one.
I've owned it for nearly 10 years, and I finally got it on the road last year. You can see it below



Currently I'm re-building a spare gearbox to replace the current one, which is very noisy, at all speeds in all gears!

So far I've rebuilt and reassembled the front output housing and transfer selectors. I need to fix the Hi-Low ratio selector which is very stiff, however next I'll be working on the main gearbox.

You (dear reader, if there are any still with me) can expect most posts to be about land rovers, with occasional forays into DIY, steam engines and anything else I think worth committing to paper.